Move over Srimoyee, Saumitra-Sujata just hogged all your TRPs. When BJP MP Saumitra Khan contorted his face in consternation to activate his tear ducts in a live press conference, Bengali households were hooked. Gone were the days when Sovan-Ratna-Baishakhi’s salacious tales dominated prime time Bengali news. The recent news cycle was too political and boring.
Until ofcourse Saumitra Da said: “Sujata, aami tomaake Khan podobi theke mukti dilam.” (I free you from the Khan surname).
For those of you who’ve read this far and are still wondering what is happening, then you’ve missed what could be (or not) the most dramatic press conference in the run-up to the West Bengal elections. One in which Khan said that he’d file for divorce because his wife, Sujata Mondol, had joined the Trinamool Congress, just hours prior.
This had many bhadralok uncles on Twitter ask, “ISn’T tHiS TEeN TaLaQ?
The answer to which is, no kaku, it’s not. This is the other Khan, pronounced kha with a nasal twang.
Borrowing from uncle’s thought process, Sujata Mondol asked why a member of the BJP, a party that opposed triple talaq, was calling for divorce just because of ideological differences?
Not an invalid question, but a general lesson that maybe it’s a good idea to talk politics on the first date.
Mondol then, doing a better job of activating her tear ducts than Khan, said that she was wearing sindoor and mangalsutra in Khan’s name and if “after divorcing her, Saumitra becomes BJP’s CM candidate”, then that’s what she wants.
Meanwhile, news channels flashed that this was the Trinamool’s answer to BJP poaching former TMC minister Suvendu Adhikari. This, when the TMC, in their joining description, called her an “eminent personality”. Not even a BJP leader.
Not to say that this joining did not help the Trinamool. Just two days after the Suvendu fiasco, Saumitra-Sujata’s divorce was all that the state was talking about.
Soon, Khan upped the ante as he spouted poetry in a Devdas-esque manner in the one-on-one interviews after the press conference. Meanwhile, news channels also ran what looked like some sort of pre-wedding/anniversary video in which Khan and Mondol were dancing around trees to “Dil diya gallan”. And by news channels, I mean ABP Anondo. Because it’s always ABP Anondo.
Later, prime time anchors asked if father and son, brother and brother, uncle and niece can stay together after being from different parties, why can’t husband and wife?
Ummm…maybe because in all those other relationships, you’re not bound by a contract? Also, what if I want my child to go to JNU and he doesn’t?
At the press conference, Khan also mentioned how Sujata was known as an “MP’s wife”. This is significant as it is because of Sujata that Khan didn’t even have to do the basic minimum required to win an election- enter your constituency.
Facing criminal chargers during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Khan was barred from entering the Bishnupur constituency where he was contesting from. It was Sujata who campaigned for him and won him the seat. What must also be noted is that during that time, she was probably known as the “criminal politician’s wife”. But guess who didn’t file for divorce?
This episode also establishes Khan, who is president of the BJP youth wing, as a true-blue millennial leader. He has cute videos with his wife, suffers heartbreaks and is then bold enough to wear his emotions of his sleeve. A few photos of him eating avocado toast and we’re there!
It also establishes that we, as audience, like our politics to be dramatic and our dramas to be political. Will Saumitra take back Sujata is finally a more important question than if Titli will land the plane, and we are loving it!
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